Liz Hein

December 9, 2010

CI 403/ Unit Plan

Interpreting the culture of A Thousand Splendid Suns outside of the text

Time: 50 minutes

Setting: 11th grade classroom with 25 students. The classroom is diverse, with some students who speak Chinese at home, and others who speak Spanish. One male student has a hearing impairment. This is a world literature course.

Theory:

1. Our classroom discussion on the importance of using outside sources in the classroom was a great source of theory for this lesson. It is vital to incorporate other sources into the curriculum to give students a break and allow them to see a different point of view. The Delpit article we read in class also provided theory for my lesson. He argues that, “actual writing for real audiences and real purposes is a vital element in helping students to understand that they have an important voice in their own learning process”. I couldn’t agree more with this statement. Students need a real purpose for writing and showing them real life works to write about like the photograph of “Afghan Girl” and the article accompanying it show students that the reading they are doing is important and can be relate to real life things. My hope is that when they do their homework, they will think about their writing having a purpose and I could give their writing a purpose by giving it some sort of publication.

Tchudi and Mitchell also offered theory in their book, Exploring and Teaching the English Language Arts. They say that “students learn to sing this lives through writing. They use writing to take the power out of their pain”. Students can see the power and the pain in the photograph of the “Afghan Girl”. Writing about it, students can relate it to their own lives and maybe release some pain they may be feeling. My hope is that students will learn something about themselves as they write and think about the girl in the photograph.

Finally, I pull theory from Jim Burke’s English Teacher’s Companion. He says that journals, “provide students with a space where they can take their risks; think differently; and, at times, write more honestly than they could if their thinking were public” (181). I love this theory of journaling. Students can have a safe place to write their thoughts and know that they aren’t being judged. They know I will give them participation for their writing but don’t have to read it if they don’t want me to.

2. The students will have read all of Reading Lolita in Tehran and some of A Thousand Splendid Suns prior to this lesson. They will have done several writing assignments and will have seen some supplementary readings, for example, 1001 nights and other stories mentioned in the text.The students will have a fairly large span of knowledge about Muslims, Islam, and Iran and Afghanistan.

3. During class, students will see the famous picture of the Muslim woman that appeared in National Geographic Magazine entitled, “Afghan Girl” (1985) to start the class. They will also all receive a copy of the article published in the magazine to accompany the photograph entitled “A Life Revealed”.

4. This lesson offers a break and supplemental material to A Thousand Splendid Suns. Students are mid-text when they complete this lesson and will be thinking critically about the female characters in the book. The students will learn about the girl in the photographic and her back-story and be able to think about the characters in the story in relation to the girl in National Geographic.

Objectives:

1. By the end of this lesson, students will be able to connect the “Afghan Girl” to Miriam and Laila from A Thousand Splendid Suns. This connection will be demonstrated in classroom instruction and the writing assignment given out at the end of class.

2. By the end of this lesson, students will be able to make predictions about outside sources. This will be demonstrated when students must make a prediction on the story of the girl, after only having seen her photograph.

Materials:

Overhead Projector

Photograph of “Afghan Girl” that can be displayed on the overhead

25 copies of article on the “Afghan Girl” (attachment 1)

Chalk to write on board

Journals for students to write down responses

25 copies of writing assignment (attachment 2)

A copy of A Thousand Splendid Suns for reference

Preparation: Before class, I will need to make an overhead of the photo and make sure the technology will work. I will also need to create the handout for the writing assignment and print copies of the article for students to keep. I will need to stand at the door as students walk in and instruct them to look at the picture on the board and jot down anything they notice about it and what they find interesting. They will also need to make a brief guess about what her life story is.

Procedure:

1. (Before the bell rings) Students will be instructed to enter the classroom and look at the prompt on the board. The prompt asks them to look at the photograph displayed and write down their observations and make a prediction about what her life-story is.

photo by Steve McCurry

(http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2002/04/afghan-girl/index-text)

2.(15 minutes) Ask for student volunteers to share their answers to the quick-write. Discuss where the similarities and differences are and why. Ask them why they made the predictions that they did and what about the picture makes them believe what they believe.

3. (10 minutes) Hand out article on “Afghan Girl” entitled “A Life Revealed”. Allow students approximately ten minutes to read through the article. Circulate the room as students do this and offer assistance if need it.

4. (20 minutes) Hold a discussion on “Afghan Girl” in relation with the characters in the book. Break the students into four groups and assign two of them to compare the picture with “Miriam” and two groups to compare the girl to Laila. Ask them to discuss their similarities and their differences and to think about what the Afghan girl would have been like had she been in A Thousand Splendid Suns.

5. (5 minutes) Hand out the assignment sheet on the writing for this lesson. Read over the instructions with the students so they know exactly what is expected of them I will allow time for questions and tell them the due date of the assignment.

Discussion Ideas:

1. What do you think “Afghan girl” is like? Why do you think she is like this and what about the picture leads you to your assumptions?

2. Why do you think this photographic is so popular and iconic? It is one of the most recognized photographs ever but for what reason?

3. If you had to choose after reading the article, is Afghan girl more like Miriam or Laila? Why do you think so?

4. Is there any other news story you know of recently that could also be compared to A Thousand Splendid Suns? What is it and what makes it comparable?

5. After this lesson, do you think of A Thousand Splendid Suns differently at all? What accounts for these differences or lack of differences?

Bilingual/ESL Accommodations: This lesson is meant for students to better understand diversity and A Thousand Splendid Suns and be able to communicate that in writing. Some of the tasks may be more challenging for students learning English as a Second

Language. I think these students would be able to complete most of the lesson without additional help, however I would definitely offer any guidance on difficult words in the article that they may not be familiar with. I would also be sure to elaborate on all directions on the homework assignment so students understand exactly what they need to do. I will be available for conferencing and extra help if any students would think this to be beneficial. The Latino students will be allowed to have a Spanish-English dictionary with them at all times for help with any challenging words that may come up. The Chinese students may also have a translational dictionary with them if they choose. They will also not be forced to read aloud in class if they don’t feel comfortable doing so. I will also stress that in their writing, I am looking more for content rather than mechanics. While students should understand things like comma usage, I am more interested to see that they understand the concept of the Afghan Girl in relation to A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Special Education Accommodations: Hearing Impairments means an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child's educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness. (http://www.isbe.state.il.us/spec-ed/html/categories.htm). I will always have this student seated closed to me so that he can hear my voice the best possible. I will make sure that anything I am reading aloud is also in print for this student so that they can see the words as he attempts to hear them. I will ask this student if there is anything that makes him uncomfortable that I do in class and that he cannot hear. If there is, I will make sure to avoid it. No directions will ever only be said verbally. I may also designate a note taker for this student so he can read over what happened in class in case he missed a part. For this lesson particularly, I will offer any additional help with verbal directions that I may elaborate on. I will ensure that this student can understand what is going on in his group by sitting with them and reiterating what is being said if the student seems to have missed something. I will definitely put this student in a group with someone that I know is usually helpful to reduce his chances of missing something. The student can also always come to me during his lunch hour or study hall for any extra help.

Assessment: First, my students all know that they receive participation points every class period. They will be assessed on if they are actively engaging with classroom activity and discussion and are focused and on task throughout the period. Students don’t necessarily need to talk aloud during class because many are timid; they just need to demonstrate to me that they are actively participating. Their writing in the journal will also contribute to this participation grade. The group work will be another component. As for the homework assignment, the actual rubric is with the assignment sheet. Students will be able to receive a total of 30 points for this assignment. This is a large amount of points because this is an important assignment as it shows the students abilities to make connections. It is not worth as much as the final assignment for this unit however, because it only relates to one of the two texts we read.

Extension Ideas:

- Students could read more information about this photograph to further their understanding and better their assignment

-Students could look for other iconic photographs that represent similarities to the text as well. They could do a project connecting this photo to the “Afghan Girl” and A Thousand Splendid Suns

-Students could do a supplemental reading of The Kite Runner. This book is by the same author and is similar to themes in A Thousand Splendid Suns. It would be interesting to compare the male characters in The Kite Runner to the photograph and evaluate the gender relations.

-Students could take their own photographs that they believe would be representative on the text. They could write papers similar to the assignment and compare their photographs to that of the “Afghan Girl”.

Source of Activity: It is essential to thank my dad, the photographer for this assignment. He has exposed me to a lot of iconic photographs and this one has always stuck out in my mind. I knew I had to show it to my students as well. I would then like to thank Jim Burke. His text urges teachers to think outside of the box and I think that is what I am doing here. I also need to thank my unit plan group members, Katie Janicek and Josh Weakly, for listening to my ideas for this lesson and helping me think them through. I would like to thank my Special Education professor, Dr. Lisa Monda-Amaya for her extensive knowledge on special education and hearing impairment that guided me in this lesson plan. I also need to thank National Geographic Magazine for their excellent article and follow up on the “Afghan Girl”. Finally, I would like to thank my Centennial High School cooperating teacher, Jen McQueen. Jen worked at the newspaper at Centennial and urged me to include new stories in the classroom because it is a new and important type of writing that many students are not frequently exposed to.

Resources and References:

"A Thousand Splendid Suns." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thousand_Splendid_Suns>.

Burke, Jim. The English Teacher’s Companion: a complete Guide to Classroom, Curriculum, and the Profession. (3rd ed). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008.

Delpit, Lisa D. "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children." Harvard Educational Review 58.3 (1998). Print.

Illinois State Board of Education: Illinois Learning Standards. 2010. Illinois State Board of Education. 17 September 2010. http://www.isbe.net/ils/ela/standards.htm

Illinois State Board of Education: Special Education Categories. 2010. Illinois State Board of Education. 17 September 2010. http://isbe.state.il.us/spec-ed/html/categories.htm

Newman, By Cathy. "A Life Revealed." National Geographic Magazine. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. <http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2002/04/afghan-girl/index-text>.

Tchudi, Stephen, Diana Mitchell, and Stephen Tchudi. Exploring and Teaching the English Language Arts. New York: Longman, 1999. Print.

Illinois State English Language Arts Goals

State Goal 1: Read with Understanding and Fluency

1.B.5c: Evaluate a variety of compositions for purpose, structure, content and details for use in school or at work.

This goal is accomplished in this lesson with the magazine article I present to the class. It is a new type of composition that students may not be used to and they evaluate the composition to determine the life of the girl described in it. They evaluate all aspects of the article in order to complete their assignment on “Afghan Girl” in comparison to A Thousand Splendid Suns

State Goal 2: Read and understand literature representative of various societies, eras and ideas.

2.A.5a: Compare and evaluate oral, written or viewed works from various eras and traditions and analyze complex literary devices (e.g., structures, images, forms, foreshadowing, flashbacks, stream of consciousness)

This goal is accomplished in this lesson because students evaluate the photograph and article and compare it to A Thousand Splendid Suns. Students will relate this photograph to what they know about the text. The students also use foreshadowing and predictions to anticipate the life of the girl picture, thus furthering their understanding.

State Goal 3: Write to communicate for a variety of purposes.

3.C.5a: Communicate information and ideas in narrative, informative and persuasive writing with clarity and effectiveness in a variety of written forms using appropriate traditional and/or electronic formats; adapt content, vocabulary, voice and tone to the audience purpose and situation.

This goal is accomplished in this lesson because students must write a narrative, adding the Afghan girl to the text and they must do this electronically to create an official and well-written document. They may also incorporate persuasion in their writing in order to convince the audience that this character could really belong in the story.

State Goal 4: Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations

4.B.5b: Use group discussion skills to assume leadership and participant roles within an assigned project or to reach a group goal.

This goal is accomplished in this lesson by having students discuss what they thought of the photograph and/or article. They must work together and think about the themes and comparisons to reach the common goal of being able to complete the assessment for this lesson.

State Goal 5: Use the language arts to acquire, assess, and communicate information.

5.B.5b: Credit primary and secondary sources in a form appropriate for presentation or publication for a particular audience.

This goal is accomplished in this lesson by having students write a narrative that requires them to cite the text itself, the photograph, and the article. They must understand and know how to cite all three before they can complete their assignment. They know their audience is their classmates and myself.

Reflection: As soon as I began reading A Thousand Splendid Suns I knew that I wanted to do something with the National Geographic photograph that I have seen so many times. There is something in the girl’s eyes that are haunting yet inviting. If you see this photograph, you are bound to wonder about this girl and what her life is like to create that look in her eye. I wanted to begin the class period with this photographic because I think it will really capture the student’s attention. I wanted them to make predictions about this girl’s life because it will allow them to use some creativity. They can see a lot in her eyes and I think students could make some really great predictions. I wanted students to then share their answers so other students could get some ideas in their heads and think even more about the photograph. I think it was important to compare and contrast their ideas to see the vast amount of things that could be related to this photograph. Thousands have people have thought about this photograph before these students and there are a lot of options that could be valid to explain this girl’s life.

I then wanted to hand out the article on the life of this girl. National Geographic published this article decades after first publishing the photograph in their magazine. It was essential to hand this out after the first activity because I wanted students to form their own opinions before finding out more information on the girl. I have the students read this article and then discuss it in order to get the most out of it. I want to give them class time to read it because they will have enough homework with the assignment. I also wanted them to have the chance to read it and think it over with classmates because collaboration is an important part of education. I began asking them questions about the article in relation to A Thousand Splendid Suns because that is what their writing assignment is about and I want them to begin thinking about it early. I then handed out the assignment. I wanted to be sure to read it aloud so students catch every detail. I also wanted them to be able to ask questions and for the entire class to be able to hear the questions. If I were to do this lesson again, I would make a few adjustments. If I had more time, I would maybe provide multiple articles about different aspects of the “Afghan Girl’s” life so that students have a lot to work with when working on their assignment. I would also maybe give students time in class to write and make multiple drafts for the assignment. While it is not worth a ton of points, it will require some effort and creativity. Finally, I may also allow them to work Reading Lolita in Tehran into the assignment. While I directly related the photograph to the characters in A Thousand

Splendid Suns, an argument could definitely be made to compare it to the other text. If students really wanted to incorporate Reading Lolita in Tehran into the assignment, I think I would let them if I were to teach this again.

Overall, this was one of my favorite lessons of the unit. I think it did a great job of having students use their creativity and also incorporating outside sources. I think it is crucial to expose students to different types of writing and media and at the same time always tying it back to English. This lesson had a clear focus and purpose and I think my students took a lot away from it and will be able to apply the knowledge from this lesson for the rest of the semester and longer.

“A Life Revealed” Published in National Geographic Magazine by Cathy Newman

She remembers the moment. The photographer took her picture. She remembers her anger. The man was a stranger. She had never been photographed before. Until they met again 17 years later, she had not been photographed since.

The photographer remembers the moment too. The light was soft. The refugee camp in Pakistan was a sea of tents. Inside the school tent he noticed her first. Sensing her shyness, he approached her last. She told him he could take her picture. "I didn't think the photograph of the girl would be different from anything else I shot that day," he recalls of that morning in 1984 spent documenting the ordeal of Afghanistan's refugees.

The portrait by Steve McCurry turned out to be one of those images that sears the heart, and in June 1985 it ran on the cover of this magazine. Her eyes are sea green. They are haunted and haunting, and in them you can read the tragedy of a land drained by war. She became known around National Geographic as the "Afghan girl," and for 17 years no one knew her name.

In January a team from National Geographic Television & Film's EXPLORER brought McCurry to Pakistan to search for the girl with green eyes. They showed her picture around Nasir Bagh, the still standing refugee camp near Peshawar where the photograph had been made. A teacher from the school claimed to know her name. A young woman named Alam Bibi was located in a village nearby, but McCurry decided it wasn't her.

No, said a man who got wind of the search. He knew the girl in the picture. They had lived at the camp together as children. She had returned to Afghanistan years ago, he said, and now lived in the mountains near Tora Bora. He would go get her.

It took three days for her to arrive. Her village is a six-hour drive and three-hour hike across a border that swallows lives. When McCurry saw her walk into the room, he thought to himself: This is her.

Names have power, so let us speak of hers. Her name is Sharbat Gula, and she is Pashtun, that most warlike of Afghan tribes. It is said of the Pashtun that they are only at peace when they are at war, and her eyes—then and now—burn with ferocity. She is 28, perhaps 29, or even 30. No one, not even she, knows for sure. Stories shift like sand in a place where no records exist.

Time and hardship have erased her youth. Her skin looks like leather. The geometry of her jaw has softened. The eyes still glare; that has not softened. "She's had a hard life," said McCurry. "So many here share her story." Consider the numbers. Twenty-three years of war, 1.5 million killed, 3.5 million refugees: This is the story of Afghanistan in the past quarter century.

Now, consider this photograph of a young girl with sea green eyes. Her eyes challenge ours. Most of all, they disturb. We cannot turn away.

"There is not one family that has not eaten the bitterness of war," a young Afghan merchant said in the 1985 National Geographic story that appeared with Sharbat's photograph on the cover. She was a child when her country was caught in the jaws of the Soviet invasion. A carpet of destruction smothered countless villages like hers. She was perhaps six when Soviet bombing killed her parents. By day the sky bled terror. At night the dead were buried. And always, the sound of planes, stabbing her with dread.

"We left Afghanistan because of the fighting," said her brother, Kashar Khan, filling in the narrative of her life. He is a straight line of a man with a raptor face and piercing eyes. "The Russians were everywhere. They were killing people. We had no choice."

Shepherded by their grandmother, he and his four sisters walked to Pakistan. For a week they moved through mountains covered in snow, begging for blankets to keep warm.

"You never knew when the planes would come," he recalled. "We hid in caves."

The journey that began with the loss of their parents and a trek across mountains by foot ended in a refugee camp tent living with strangers.

"Rural people like Sharbat find it difficult to live in the cramped surroundings of a refugee camp," explained Rahimullah Yusufzai, a respected Pakistani journalist who acted as interpreter for McCurry and the television crew. "There is no privacy. You live at the mercy of other people." More than that, you live at the mercy of the politics of other countries. "The Russian invasion destroyed our lives," her brother said.

It is the ongoing tragedy of Afghanistan. Invasion. Resistance. Invasion. Will it ever end? "Each change of government brings hope," said Yusufzai. "Each time, the Afghan people have found themselves betrayed by their leaders and by outsiders professing to be their friends and saviors."

In the mid-1990s, during a lull in the fighting, Sharbat Gula went home to her village in the foothills of mountains veiled by snow. To live in this earthen-colored village at the end of a thread of path means to scratch out an existence, nothing more. There are terraces planted with corn, wheat, and rice, some walnut trees, a stream that spills down the mountain (except in times of drought), but no school, clinic, roads, or running water.

Here is the bare outline of her day. She rises before sunrise and prays. She fetches water from the stream. She cooks, cleans, does laundry. She cares for her children; they are the center of her life. Robina is 13. Zahida is three. Alia, the baby, is one. A fourth daughter died in infancy. Sharbat has never known a happy day, her brother says, except perhaps the day of her marriage.

Her husband, Rahmat Gul, is slight in build, with a smile like the gleam of a lantern at dusk. She remembers being married at 13. No, he says, she was 16. The match was arranged.

He lives in Peshawar (there are few jobs in Afghanistan) and works in a bakery. He bears the burden of medical bills; the dollar a day he earns vanishes like smoke. Her asthma, which cannot tolerate the heat and pollution of Peshawar in summer, limits her time in the city and with her husband to the winter. The rest of the year she lives in the mountains.

At the age of 13, Yusufzai, the journalist, explained, she would have gone into purdah, the secluded existence followed by many Islamic women once they reach puberty.

"Women vanish from the public eye," he said. In the street she wears a plum-colored burka, which walls her off from the world and from the eyes of any man other than her husband. "It is a beautiful thing to wear, not a curse," she says.

Faced by questions, she retreats into the black shawl wrapped around her face, as if by doing so she might will herself to evaporate. The eyes flash anger. It is not her custom to subject herself to

the questions of strangers.

Had she ever felt safe?

"No. But life under the Taliban was better. At least there was peace and order."

Had she ever seen the photograph of herself as a girl?

"No."

She can write her name, but cannot read. She harbors the hope of education for her children. "I want my daughters to have skills," she said. "I wanted to finish school but could not. I was sorry when I had to leave."

Education, it is said, is the light in the eye. There is no such light for her. It is possibly too late for her 13-year-old daughter as well, Sharbat Gula said. The two younger daughters still have a chance.

The reunion between the woman with green eyes and the photographer was quiet. On the subject of married women, cultural tradition is strict. She must not look—and certainly must not smile—at a man who is not her husband. She did not smile at McCurry. Her expression, he said, was flat. She cannot understand how her picture has touched so many. She does not know the power of those eyes.

Such knife-thin odds. That she would be alive. That she could be found. That she could endure such loss. Surely, in the face of such bitterness the spirit could atrophy. How, she was asked, had she survived?

The answer came wrapped in unshakable certitude.

"It was," said Sharbat Gula, "the will of God."

Attachment 2

A Thousand Splendid Suns/ “Afghan Girl”

Writing Assignment Now that you have seen the photo of the “Afghan Girl” and read about her life, your task is to think about her in the context of A Thousand Splendid Suns. Pick one scene from the novel thus far, and place the girl in the photograph into the scene. You will write a 3-page narrative where you rewrite the scene of your choosing adding “Afghan Girl” as a character. You have a lot of creative freedom with this. Be sure to use the information we learned about the girl in the photograph to formulate her character in your scene. Make sure she interacts with at least 2 characters in the scene and give a purpose for her being in the story. Feel free to change any aspects of the plot that you see fitting for your scene.

This will be due in one week

Good luck!

_____________________________________________________________

Grading Criteria -Writer has chosen one scene and included the “Afghan Girl”. The girl interacts with at least two characters and there seems to be a purpose for her inclusion in the scene (10 points)

-Writer has demonstrated knowledge of the book A Thousand Splendid Suns as well as the photograph and article (10 points)

- The scene has a beginning, middle, and end. (5 points)

-Spelling and mechanics (5 points)